July 2009 in the Southern Hemisphere

[Stephen Vella]

Paul i second that, That I histrioides looks amazing, nice colours. You must have a good camera..whats the camera?

[Paul T]

Thanks everyone.

The pedant in me for starters has to point out.... it is Iris histrio, not Iris histrioides.  They're two different species.  I am just mentioning that in case anyone is thinking that my histrio is a misspelling.

Stephen,

My camera is a recent Panasonic Lumix, and I just love it.  You can get the lens up to less than an inch from a flower and still focus it.  I'm so glad I stuck with the lumix when I bought my new camera in March.  My old one was great, and I knew the macro was good.  This one has a 12x optical zoom instead of a 3x optical zoom, which makes it much more useful.  I'd recommend it to anyone.  It also still neatly fits in a pocket if you want to carry it around with you.  

I'm glad everyone is enjoying the pics.

[Lesley Cox]

My warm thanks to everyone here for their best wishes and thoughts while I was deep in the arms of the NZ health system. Everyone condemns it out of hand and sure, there are problems but I was wonderfully cared for both in the surgical and then in the cardio wards. The nurses, doctors and support staff were truly superb at every occasion.

What I'm especially happy about now, is to be home with some decent weather and little bulby things opening every day: crocuses, narcissus, galanthus, cyclamen, the first I. 'Katharine Hodgkin' yesterday, adonis etc. So pleased it was THEN I was away, not now. Many seeds are coming through too so it's time to get a lot more sown that have been waiting a few weeks.  Love the Iris ung. cretensis Pat. My own hasn't flowered for a couple of years. I think recent summers haven't been hot enough. 'Starker's Pink' is also "in waiting."

[Otto Fauser]

Paul , your new Panasonic Lumix camera produces superb sharp photos -I'm considering
 buying one too .
 With me Iris histrio is always the first to start the reticulata flowering season in late
 may. Did your stock of the featured histrio and histrioides var. sophenensis come from
 Marcus ? If so , then they came from my garden : the histrio came from Dr. Maurice
 Boussard in 1974 , was col. near Sofa , Lebanon, it is really one of the nicest clones I
 have seen and multyplies well .
 I. histrioides v. sophenensis is old stock from the garden of the late Christabel Beck ,of
 Fritillaries Book fame , so rather 'ancient' .- nice to keep it going .

[Paul T]

Otto,

Does your histrio REALLY start in May!    So early!  Actually, the histrio in my picture came from a generous parcel from yourself 18 months ago, not from Marcus.  The ssp sophensis did indeed come from Marcus quite a few years back now (at least 10 years, perhaps a few more?).  Lovely to read the histories of these plants.  I did have to laugh when the two flowered together though, as they are the largest and smallest of my retic types.  They're on opposite sides of the crocus garden though, so no direct comparison. 

[johnw]

the late Christabel Beck ,of  Fritillaries Book fame , so rather 'ancient' .- nice to keep it going .

Otto - What a lovely old book that is and with such wonderful line drawings.  I happened upon it  at the local library and looked for it for years. Finally found a copy in the UK. It would be interesting to know more about her life.

Good grief I just googled Christabel Beck and see one book is available at $201 US at Amazon .com and £293.75 at amazon.uk. Glad I got it when I did.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

Beck's book is certainly a great treasure even though very out of date nowadays with many new species since it was published. But what it IS and Pratt and Jefferson-Brown ISN'T, is authoritative.

[Otto Fauser]

John ,  I too treasure my copy of 'Fitillaries ', bought way back for 30 shillings !
 I corresponded with Christabel B.in the 1950's [ kept a few letters] , she was very kind
 sending Fritillaria seeds to a teenager [moi] .She mentioned as she was living not too far away from E.A. Bowles ,that she visited him frequently there at Middleton House .
 The Good Old Days .

[Rogan]

Every year, when this little beauty blooms, I just cannot help myself and end up waxing lyrically    Androcymbium latifolium in a pot far from home: the barren Roggeveld plateau of the Great Karoo.

[Paul T]

Wow!  Double Wow!  And even Triple Wow!!    Amazing.    Those are just large bracts surrounding the flowers I presume?  Very different, isn't it (but VERY nice!!).

[Maggi Young]

Mike in Madeira brought up the subject of this plant in another thread some time ago.... and Alberto Castillo replied to him.... I think those posts are of interest here so I copy them below.....

   From: February 23, 2009,
 Quote from: Ezeiza  re planting depth .......
    " 27 cm deep is a great pot for growing most bulb goodies. Babianas, Sparaxis, Androcymbium, Phycella, Leucocoryne, Ungernia, Rhodophialas, Hyeronimiellas, and a number of others all demand depth. "

Quote from Mike:
"Alberto, I have an Androcymbium latifolium, that I got in December, but it have not sprouted yet. Do you have any ideas to break the dormancy of these corms?

And regarding Leucocoryne, how long do the seeds take to sprout? "

Quote from: Ezeiza (Alberto C.)

             "  Androcymbium latifolium/pulchrum comes from the semiarid parts of South Africa. When one species skips a season almost always the reason is lack of proper baking during dormancy. Are you growing them too cool? A. latifolium is partial to very gritty, well drained soil.

               Leucocoryne seed sprouts readily if fresh, in early autumn, not long after sowing. All species need very well drained soils and do best in low humidity climates (this is so with most Central/Northern Chilean species). Seedlings bulbs need deeper planting every year. It is typical that offset bulbs are found much deeper than mother plants.They move deeper and more sideways from mother plants. If the seed you order is maintained under Seed Bank conditions make sure to reserve them and have them delivered just at sowing time. Otherwise all the time the seed is out of the Bank gets older and older until it can no longer be viable. "

[cohan]

Every year, when this little beauty blooms, I just cannot help myself and end up waxing lyrically    Androcymbium latifolium in a pot far from home: the barren Roggeveld plateau of the Great Karoo.

very nice plant indeed and just how little is it? what is the pot size?

[cohan]

Mike in Madeira brought up the subject of this plant in another thread some time ago.... and Alberto Castillo replied to him.... I think those posts are of interest here so I copy them below.....

   From: February 23, 2009,
 Quote from: Ezeiza  re planting depth .......
    " 27 cm deep is a great pot for growing most bulb goodies. Babianas, Sparaxis, Androcymbium, Phycella, Leucocoryne, Ungernia, Rhodophialas, Hyeronimiellas, and a number of others all demand depth. "

Quote from Mike:
"Alberto, I have an Androcymbium latifolium, that I got in December, but it have not sprouted yet. Do you have any ideas to break the dormancy of these corms?

And regarding Leucocoryne, how long do the seeds take to sprout? "

Quote from: Ezeiza (Alberto C.)

             "  Androcymbium latifolium/pulchrum comes from the semiarid parts of South Africa. When one species skips a season almost always the reason is lack of proper baking during dormancy. Are you growing them too cool? A. latifolium is partial to very gritty, well drained soil.

               Leucocoryne seed sprouts readily if fresh, in early autumn, not long after sowing. All species need very well drained soils and do best in low humidity climates (this is so with most Central/Northern Chilean species). Seedlings bulbs need deeper planting every year. It is typical that offset bulbs are found much deeper than mother plants.They move deeper and more sideways from mother plants. If the seed you order is maintained under Seed Bank conditions make sure to reserve them and have them delivered just at sowing time. Otherwise all the time the seed is out of the Bank gets older and older until it can no longer be viable. "

some good info, maggi, thanks..unviable seed is a bit of a touchy point

[Rogan]

Androcymbium latifolium, and indeed all the South African Andros have been sunk, dumped, etc. into the genus Colchicum - so that gives you some idea of its allegiances.

Those are indeed large red bracts surrounding what appears to be a single flower with no, or very reduced "petals" (tepals). The plants pictured here are growing in a 15cm (6") pot, so you can judge the approximate size of the plants from that. The bracts are quite long lived structures, so you'll have colour for quite a number of weeks during the winter months.

From my limited cultivation experiences, this plant is fairly easy to grow on a "Mediterranean" cycle in well-drained media, but is quite slow from seed. Seed is readily available from specialist nurseries and is usually not very expensive.

Generally a very cool plant.   

[Rogan]

A few more plants making statements in my collection at the moment are:

Aloe capitata - a Madagascan Aloe that opens its flowers from the top down;

Aloe capitata - a macro shot;

Lachenalia bulbifera from the southern Cape coast;

Cyclamen coum - pale pink picotee, just to prove that I can and do grow "other stuff" 

Cyclamen coum - cerise form.